STATE COLLEGE — On a night seemingly set up to celebrate senior Quentin Wright’s 100th career win, freshman Jordan Conaway stole the spotlight.

The New Oxford grad erased a 7-4 lead with two takedowns in the final 30 seconds to tie the match at 8-8 and send it into a sudden victory period. Just 36 seconds into that one-minute period, Conaway snapped down No. 3 Tyler Graff of Wisconsin and spun around for a takedown and a 10-8 upset win.

“It’s crazy, especially in Rec Hall with everyone screaming and everything,” Conaway said. “Going into the third period I was down 7-3, so I had some work to do. I knew he was kind of getting tired and slowing down a little so I just kept the pressure on and wore him out even more. I was getting a little bit easier takedowns.”

Conaway escaped earlier in the third period to cut the lead to 7-4 and, with a minute to go, Graff seemingly went into a prevent defense, throttling back his offense. At the same time, Conaway ramped up his intensity.

With 21 seconds to go, Conaway scored a takedown to make the score 7-6 and the Rec Hall crowd of 6,515, the largest of the season, seemed to sense an upset brewing, matching Conaway’s intensity with an increase in the decibel level.

Conaway said he drew on the crowd’s encouragment.

“Surprisingly it helps just knowing that they can see that I can pick up the pace and control the match and knowing that they’re behind me and pushing me,” he said. “So I just kept the pace up and kept wearing him out, getting takedowns. It definitely helps.”

Conaway cut Graff loose and immediately snapped him down for the tying takedown with 14 seconds left. He rode Graff the rest of the way, narrowly preventing an escape at the buzzer, and sent the crowd into a frenzy and the match into overtime.

Once in overtime, Conaway carried the action and scored on another snap-down and go-behind for the win 36 seconds into the period.

The crowd roared its approval as Conaway’s arm was raised and he sprinted off the mat into a waiting mob of his teammates.

Those teammates, even with Conaway trailing a veteran like Graff, believed he was going to win.

“The feeling wasn’t like maybe he was going to keep the match close. It was he was going to win it,” 165-pounder David Taylor said. “There’s not many times when you’re down three or four points when you feel like you’re going to win the match. I think that’s how encouraging the fans are. It gave Jordan quite an edge. That’s a huge win for him.”

Taylor, who’s seen plenty of big wins in his stellar career, ranked Conaway’s upset with the best of them.

“That’s probably the biggest win of his career. It’s one of the biggest wins I’ve seen here since I’ve been here in three years at Rec Hall,” Taylor said.

“I think sometimes people maybe take for granted how awesome of a place this is to wrestle, because of some of the results we’ve had. But you really understand how great of fans we have when we get a match like.”

Never one to overemphasize a singular win, head coach Cael Sanderson couldn’t deny the importance of an upset over a No. 3-ranked wrestler.

“He’s just one of those guys who is very special with the team, so to have him have a big win like that is very special for everybody. That’s why you saw everybody jumping around. And that’s a tough kid obviously. That’s a big win for him,” he said.

That feeling of specialness within the team was confirmed by none other than Wright.

“It reminded me of my freshman year when I got a takedown in the last second (over No. 6 Alton Lucas of Hofstra) to win it. The place went loud. It was crazy.

“It’s super special and it really is a testament to the kind of person he is, with a never-say-die attitude and the way the coaches are coaching our team to be able to get us to make that choice and create those special moments.”

Even on a night when he notched a milestone win that all wrestlers aspire to, Wright said Conaway’s win would equal that memory.

“I would say both. They both go together,” he said, a huge grin creasing his face. “Winning my 100th match, especially by fall with a spladle, it’s incredible, but I’m also going to remember, along with that, I’m super proud of that but also that Jordan gutted out that win. That is going to stick together.”

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